The Walton Family Foundation has announced a $25 million grant to the KIPP Foundation to support the nationwide network of KIPP public charter schools.
The grant will target eight regions, including Denver, where KIPP — or the Knowledge Is Power Program — already operates successful schools. The money will be be distributed over the next five years with the purpose of doubling the number of KIPP of schools.
While startup costs to open schools will remain a local responsibility, the grant will accelerate the rate at which the foundation is able to train the leaders who start schools across the country, from roughly 75 per year to about 150.
Nonprofit KIPP operates three charters within the Denver Public School district.
Test-score performance at two of the existing schools has outpaced similar schools, and in some cases the overall district. The third, KIPP Montbello College Prep, just opened this fall.
The opening of KIPP’s first Denver elementary — unanimously approved in June by the DPS board — may be delayed until the fall of 2013.
According to the Walton foundation, using the grant to expand the schools, will also help KIPP’s mission to increase the number of students who enroll in and complete college after high school.
KIPP now serves more than 32,00 students in 109 schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
The network was created in Houston in 1994 by Teach For America alumni Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin. The first two KIPP schools, in Houston and the South Bronx opened in 1995.
The non-profit KIPP Foundation was established in 2000 in partnership with Doris and Donald Fisher, cofounders of the retail giant Gap Inc.
The Walton Family Foundation, started by Wal-Mart founders Sam and Helen Walton, announced another large grant reaching Denver earlier this year.
That grant, a $49.5 million grant for Teach for America, aimed to double the amount of TFA teachers nationwide in the next three years.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372 or yrobles@denverpost.com
